Projectile.



L. B. HARVEY.

PROJECHLE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 24.1918. 1,288,883. Patented Dec. 21, 1915.

IN V EN TOR.

loam: lifiarvgy ATTORNEY LOUIS B. HARVEY, or SAN FRANCISCO,

" orrrcn.

CALIFORNIA.

' PROJECTILE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 24., 1918.

* Application filed June 24, 1918. Serial No. 241,562

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS B. HARVEY, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at the city and county of San Francisco. State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Projectiles; and I dodeclare the following to be a clear, full, and exact description of the same, panying drawings, reference marked thereon, part of this application.

This invention relates projectiles used with coast. defense or naval ordnance, the principal object of my invention being to produce a projectile or shell which will have a much greater muzzle velocity for a given charge of powder than the present form of shell in the same gun, and hence will be capable of being projected much farther than the ordinary shell under the same conditions.

A further object is to produce a projectile which will do away with the necessity of and to the characters of which form a to improvements in having the bore of the gun rifled in order to give a rotary or screw motion to the projectile when fired; The present system of rifiing the bore of a gun is aslow and costly rocedure. and unsatisfactory for the reason that the soft collar at the rear of the shell is forceor squeezed .into the rifiing grooves to assume thescrew motion before it leaves the barrel of the gun. This causes great friction and quick Wearing of the rifling grooves rendering the gun inaccurate as to aim.

Still another object of the invention is to devise a shell which can be aimed. at an V ring for instance,

' of hitting it as obtained with land object under Water, as the hull of a submawith the same certainty and which does notricochetfrom the sur 'face of the water as do the present pro jec'tiles. I V

A still further object is to produce a projectile whichwill be simpleand inexpensive, and yet extremely efficient for the purposes for which it is designed. v

These objects, I accomplish by means of such structure and relative arrangement of the parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the following specification and claims.

On the drawings, similar characters of refreference being had to the accomand particularly to that type naval use,

firing,

charge in the gun from gettin this being of a suitable length and approxi form of fins or vanes thereon.

mately half as large in diameter as the bore of the. gun 2 in which the shell is used, this gun being of'the smooth bore type.

The shell is fitted with a plurality of fins or vanes3 whose outside. diameter is that of the gun bore, the same being deflected from the horizontal axis of the shell so as to have a slight twist and thus form a portion of screw-threads which have a very large pitch,

which would probably be about. one pitch for every thirty feet of length for an 8-inch diameter shell.

The edges of the fins 3 are parallel for their entire lengthand terminatewith a slight forward incline, as at 4, near the rounded head of the shell. These fins may be either cast in one piece with the shell or may be made separately and fitted in grooves 5 shaped in the body of the shell 1,

or by any method found to'be most practicable in the art.

In the modified form of fins, as shown in Fig. 4, which is especially intended for the fins 3 are curved down at their forward end, as at 6, to the point on the shell 1 where the firing head 7 is screwed therein. v

In order to prevent the gas and power generated by the explosion of a suitable gun wadding mem' er 8, havin outside steel plates 9 and inner compresse portion 10 adapted to .bear tightly against the bore of the gun, is placed between the shell and the said powder charge.

In the use of this shell, the same takes a rotary or screw motion when fired by reason of the pitched fins, their shape causing the air to impart this shell. This is of es use in naval service,

ecial benefit when in the powder by the shell,

form of motion to the r then the shell, when p striking-the water,-acts as a propeller. and the fins continue to ,bore' .down into "the wa- I ter witheut changingthe angle of the trajectory through which the-shellv passed while inthea1r,-'fl a The boreof the gun being smooth does what I claim as new and useful and desire away with the immense'amount of friction H generated while .forcing the shell both forward and imparting atwisting motion, to

itat the same time. 7 Y I A certain amount of frictional wear in a gun barrel is of course unavoidable, but

, with the use of my improved shell, the same i notha'vingany defihrtedocat-ion 'or course paratively in the barrel, the position of the ed es of the fins around thejperipheryof' the uwrrel will probably be altered each time, thereby 1 causing equal-wear onall 'By using a shell of hal the gun barrel, and consequently. of com-' li ht weight compared with the arts of the gun. the diameter of full sized she I, yet'with the same charge of powder as for the larger sized shell, a. cor-' respondingly greater muzzle velocity is obtainedand consequently a greaterdistance is covered by the shell in flight, and a greater range of aim is possible.

From the foregoin description it will readily be seen that have reduced; such. a dev ce as snbstantially ful of the invention as set forth herein.- f While thisspecification sets forth in detail the present and preferredcenstruction claims. I

Is the obj ects' masses 1 of the device, still it praetiee; such ate; 9

tions from such detail may. be resorted to as do not formfa' departure from the spirit of. the invention, as delinedby the; appended Havin to secure by Letters Patent is thus described invention, Y

-1.:A pro ectile of smaller diameterthan the bore of'the gun in which it is to be used having a plurality .of" dovetail grooves lengthwise .thereof' and radial thereto,

whereby fins having-their lower edges flaring outwardly may be slid in thegrooves and be held thereby.

2. The con'mbination "with a gun, and a finned projectile therein whose body diameter is less than that of the bore of the gun, of'a gun wadding member positioned between the projectile and the powder charge;

such member comprising a pair of metallic plates spaced apart, whose diameters are slightly less than the bore of the gun, and suitable wadding material secured to and compressed between the plates and impinging against the bore of the gun, the Wedding member being independentof the projectile; In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses. p LOUIS B. HARVEY. Witnesses:

VERADINE WARNER, v VEIRAN Momus; 

